The $107 billion (with a b) merger of beer titans Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller has cleared a major hurdle today, with the U.S. Justice Department signing off on the merger — under the condition that Miller divest itself of all its remaining U.S.-based businesses. [More]

It’s a mega-merger that’s been hinted at for years, but today it moved out of the realm of “people close to the situation” and into an an actual confirmation from Anheuser-Busch InBev that it has talked to the folks at SABMiller about combining the two beer giants into an even larger beer titan. [More]

Logic tells us it’s impossible for the label on the outside of a container to affect how that product tastes. Human thought processes don’t always follow logic, though. That’s why sales of Miller Lite have increased after the company introduced 80’s-retro cans and bottles last year. They don’t just look cool: some consumers say that the old-school brews even taste better. [More]

Walk into a lot of bars in this country and there’s a decent chance you’ll see the taps that once belonged to big brands increasingly being taken over by smaller operations (even if some of those “craft” brands also happen to be owned by one of the mega-brewers). This shift, along with a general decrease in beer sales, have cut some brands’ orders by more than half in just the last few years. [More]

Did Yuengling suddenly get bigger than Miller or Bud? Nope. Both are now foreign-owned. According to AdAge, Yuengling has recently surpassed Sam Adams’ Boston Beer Company as the largest U.S.-owned brewer that manufactures all its beer in the U.S.

We’re doubling down on news related to the Minnesota government shutdown today. A red tape snafu has could potentially leave all Minnesotans without easy access to Coors Light, Miller, Olde English 800 and dozens of additional beers. Meanwhile, bars across the state are running dry because they can’t buy more booze.

Blink and you’ll miss it. Miller High Life has bought up 1-second slots advertising to air during the Superbowl. The spots feature a boisterous Miller High Life (MHL) truck-loader named Wendel shouting out phrases and doing silly things inside a MHL loading dock. “Happy can,” “Cham-pagne of beers,” “pigskin gravy,” “Frugal bugle,” are some of the things says in the preview spots posted on 1secondad.com.

The venture was originally announced Oct. 9. Miller Brewing Co. and Molson Coors Inc. proposed the deal as a way to sell more Coors Light, Miller Lite and Miller Genuine Draft in the United States. The operation would target No. 1 Anheuser-Busch Cos. (NYSE:BUD) , which has nearly 50 percent of the market with products such as Budweiser, Michelob and Bud Light.

In a letter to John Manfreda, the administrator of the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the attorneys general of 28 states and Washington, D.C., and Guam say aggressive — and possibly fraudulent — marketing of energy drinks mixing alcohol and caffeine targets teenagers and young adults who buy nonalcoholic energy drinks.